HR100-OC2
Celine Monteiro
Lead Discussion Post – Lesson 10.8
This week’s discussion post allowed me to understand a bit more about Canadian’s foreign policy
considerations, although I did find it challenging to rank them in order from highest concern to lowest.
Upon reading the Jackson and Jackson reading, I ranked the following from highest concern to lowest;
promoting respect for human rights in other states, relations with the United States, relations with states in
the Pacific, economic and trade policy, arctic sovereignty, oil pipelines, defence policy, and relations with
Europe.
I ranked promoting respect for human rights in other states as the primary concern because despite
Canada’s abundance of relations with external states, Canada remained committed to preserving the
country’s independence and values (Jackson and Jackson, p.276) and could only infer that Canada’s due
diligence would be to provide the same to external partnerships. An example of this includes the Canadian
Defence Policy and how despite its changes in the international strategic environment, Canada continued
the pursuit of peaceful settlements to prevent tensions, hostilities and possibilities of warfare. (Jackson
and Jackson, p. 276). Within Canada’s partnerships with other countries and states, and trades of natural
resources, one must respect the rights of others aside from their own. As independent as Canada may be, I
reckon that respect for human rights in other states should also be held as a priority and expectation.
With respect to the foreign policy considerations that I ranked, I also placed arctic sovereignty as one of
the primarily highest concerns upon discovering Canada’s interest in developing Northern Canada. One
may argue that Canada is interested in developing the region due to revealing new resources, but must
also acknowledge the evident issues of the North that include alcoholism, low life expectancy, high
suicide rates and inadequate housing. (Jackson and Jackson, p. 274). I believe that these issues and factors
require attention and support, prior to their discussions in developing a region that also holds as a land of
the Indigenous.
